Since the mid-60s the Texas-bred Scaggs (real name William Royce Scaggs) had bounced around the music business, serving a stint in the Steve Miller Band – he met Miller at high school – and recording fairly unremarkable LPs for Columbia.
Hooking up with Earth Wind & Fire producer Joe Wissert and a crew of slick LA session musicians – later to find their own fame as Toto – Scaggs finally crafted his breakthrough, producing a perfectly polished pop-soul hybrid.
The multi-million selling success of 1976’s Silk Degrees made Boz a 10-year overnight sensation.
Highlighted by a handful of FM radio staples – including the horn-fuelled Lido Shuffle and the nocturnal groover Lowdown – the album is solid the whole way through, luxuriating in a range of styles from R&B to reggae and rock.
Two Down Then Left followed a similar musical pattern – and was a comparable success – and Scaggs toured extensively throughout the US and the rest of the world. His 1980 album, Middle Man, featured guest guitarist Carlos Santana, and was followed by the compilation LP, Hits!.
Scaggs retreated suddenly after his chart duet with Lisa Dal Bello on Miss Sun.
Ensconced in a restaurant/bar in San Francisco, Boz Scaggs did not emerge again until Other Roads (1988), although he resisted a full-scale comeback.
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